BEN Smith believes Hereford United must turn Edgar Street into a fortress to rubber-stamp their promotion credentials.

On the eve of Gravesend & Northfleet's visit, the Bulls' midfielder insists nothing less than victory will do if they are serious about winning the title or making the Conference play-offs at the end of the season.

Smith wants to emulate last year's champions Yeovil and turn Edgar Street into a fortress to lay the foundations for an assault on the championship.

"If we've got aspirations of being in the play-offs or even winning the title we have got to be looking at taking three points from these type of games," he said.

"That's not being disrespectful to Gravesend, who will beat some good teams this season, and have been on a decent run of late but we should be looking to win most of our home games.

"If you look at Yeovil and Morecambe last year they only lost two or three games at home all season and that's what we need to do."

Hereford's flying start to the season suffered a brief derailment with a 4-1 defeat at Burton last Friday but by Tuesday it was back on track following a 2-1 win against Telford.

Smith was not unduly concerned with the Burton defeat and admitted it hadn't done them any harm.

"It's put a bit of realism into our situation because the more you win people think you are just going to keep on running and never lose," he said.

"It was never a 4-1 because I think they had five shots to our 25 but teams are sitting back against us, inviting us to have possession and then trying to hit us on the counter attack.

"Gravesend will probably sit back and try to frustrate us but we've got enough quality and if the crowd is patient we should be okay."

Hereford boss Graham Turner has total confidence in his side to break down any side but admits to be staggered by Telford's defensive display on Tuesday.

"They were totally unrecognisable in formation and the way they played from the side I saw the previous Saturday," he said.

"They were solid and just sat back to frustrate us but there's enough goals throughout the side to cope with that."

The Bulls look set to be unchanged from the Telford clash with Richard Teesdale set to continue in place of Andy Tretton (thigh) in defence though striker Rob Purdie has a chance of playing after recovering from an ankle knock.

Gravesend, who are 16th in the table, have taken seven points from their last three matches.

FORMCAST: Bulls to win 2-0.